PRAGUE (AP) — Struggling Sparta Prague has fired Andrea Stramaccioni as coach despite spending big on new players.
The move comes after Sparta drew 1-1 with 10-man Brno over the weekend. The team is fifth in the standings, 14 points behind leader Viktoria Plzen.
Sparta opted to hire a ...

LONDON (AP) — Roger Bannister, the first runner to break the 4-minute barrier in the mile, has died. He was 88.
Bannister's family said in a statement that he died peacefully on Saturday in Oxford, the English city where the runner cracked the feat many had thought humanly impossible on a ...

By JOEDY McCREARY, AP Sports Writer
DURHAM, N.C. (AP) — With No. 5 Duke trailing its fiercest rival and struggling to match the magnitude of the moment, coach Mike Krzyzewski had a simple message for his team.
No pressure — and no set plays, either.
"Take the pianos off your back, quit ...

By MELISSA MURPHY, AP Sports Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — Chris Evert expects new mom Serena Williams will eclipse the Grand Slam record of 24 singles titles, maybe even this season.
The former No. 1 tennis player also says the name of current record-holder Margaret Court should remain on the ...

By MATT SUGAM, Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — When the Big Ten announced it would start playing its men's basketball tournament on the East Coast, the venue that made headlines was clear: Madison Square Garden.
From the start of the NIT in the late 1930s, to Knicks championships in the ...

By GREG BEACHAM, AP Sports Writer
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Brian Ortega needed less than one round at UFC 222 to do something never done before.
After becoming the first person ever to knock out Frankie Edgar, there's no telling what this surfing Californian could do next.
Ortega stopped the ...

By ARNIE STAPLETON, AP Pro Football Writer
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — This year's deep class of quarterbacks features as many as a half dozen first-round NFL prospects full of hope, hype and hazard.
There's Oklahoma's Baker Mayfield and questions about the Heisman winner's size and stature. A lot ...

By BARRY WILNER, AP Sports Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — Deontay Wilder has big plans. They don't particularly include Luis Ortiz, against whom Wilder defends his WBC heavyweight title on Saturday night.
Wilder is looking at a matchup with fellow champion Anthony Joshua — as soon as ...

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Adam Lind agreed Friday to a minor league contract with the Yankees, giving New York another backup option to Greg Bird at first base.
The 34-year-old Lind had been at the training camp for free agents organized by the players' association in Bradenton.
"The way the ...

By DOUG FERGUSON, AP Golf Writer
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Tiger Woods is adding another tournament to his schedule on his road to the Masters.
Woods decided Friday to play in the Valspar Championship next week at Innisbrook, along with the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill the following ...

By DANIELLA MATAR, Associated Press
BIRMINGHAM, England (AP) — All five runners in a 400-meter heat were disqualified at the world indoor athletics championships on Friday.
Abdalelah Haroun, a Qatari who won bronze at the world championships last year, was first to leave after a false ...

By ROB HARRIS and VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV, Associated Press
MOSCOW (AP) — Russia's ban from the Olympic movement was lifted on Wednesday despite two failed doping tests by its athletes at the Pyeongchang winter games.
President Vladimir Putin hailed the move during a Kremlin award ceremony for ...

By RALPH D. RUSSO, AP College Football Writer
Note: The first in a series of stories with Clemson receiver Deon Cain as the AP follows his journey to the NFL draft.
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Deon Cain knows the questions are coming and he is looking forward to answering them this week at the NFL scouting ...

By ERIC OLSON, AP Sports Writer
Ohio State's Keita Bates-Diop is The Associated Press player of the year in the Big Ten Conference and the Buckeyes' Chris Holtmann is its coach of the year.
Bates-Diop and Purdue's Carsen Edwards were unanimous picks to the AP All-Big Ten team also announced ...

By AARON BEARD, AP Basketball Writer
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) — Miami had just seen the last of its 16-point lead vanish with only a few seconds left when Ja'Quan Newton took an inbounds pass and sprinted upcourt.
Time for one more shot, he thought.
And what a remarkable shot it was.
Newton ...

By RALPH D. RUSSO, AP College Sports Writer
The cracked facade of NCAA hoops appears to be crumbling and while LeBron James, John Calipari and many agree that college basketball should be overhauled, there's no consensus on how to repair the system.
A federal investigation has alleged ...

By The Associated Press
This was not how Felix Hernandez hoped to start spring training.
Slowed by injuries last year, the Seattle ace was struck in his pitching arm by a line drive Monday and left his exhibition debut early.
The Mariners said a precautionary X-ray of his right forearm was ...

By JOHN WAWROW, AP Hockey Writer
Red Wings general manager Ken Holland has suddenly come to appreciate how valuable first-round draft picks are when a team's not in playoff contention at the NHL trade deadline.
"I've been on that on the other side," Holland said, recalling Detroit's heydays ...

By SALLY HO, Associated Press
SEATTLE (AP) — With Olympic prodigies having just dazzled audiences worldwide, parents in the U.S. are reconciling the thrill of the gold with their fears from recent sexual abuse scandals in elite youth sports.
Shannon Stabbert said her 6-year-old daughter ...

By MARI YAMAGUCHI, Associated Press
TOKYO (AP) — After winning two Olympic gold medals, Yuzuru Hanyu wants to master a quadruple axel.
Hanyu, who at the Pyeongchang Games became the first man to repeat as Olympic champion in 66 years, told a news conference on Tuesday he hoped to be the ...